A Coffee For SANTA

For our first December in a new land, my parents arranged a special surprise

- Ali Amad

I was four years old in 1993 when my family emigrated from the United Arab Emirates to Canada. I was young enough to be changed by my new home, but old enough to know I was different from everyone around me.

I was the only Arab and only Muslim in my kindergarten class in suburban Toronto. No one else had a name like mine, and no one else spoke Arabic (my English back then was rudimentary at best). Beyond those obvious differences, Canadian life proved to be quite distinct in other ways. After recovering from the shock of the teeth-chattering cold and waist-deep deluges of snow of my first Canadian winter, I discovered another surprise that December.

Overnight, everything was suddenly covered in red and green. Storefronts were decorated with string lights wrapped around pines and firs, shopping malls echoed with songs about a red-nosed reindeer named Rudolph, and my classmates chattered excitedly about what gifts they’d asked Santa for that Christmas.